There was a Nuclear Security Summit Conference in Seoul on March 26 and 27, and Ambassador Murata and I made a concerted effort to find someone to inform the participants from 54 nations of the potential global catastrophe of reactor unit 4. We asked several participants to share the idea of an Independent Assessment team comprised of a broad group of international experts to deal with this urgent issue.

I would like to introduce Ambassador Murata’s letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to convey this urgent message and also his letter to Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda for Japanese readers. He emphasized in the statement that we should bring human wisdom to tackle this unprecedented challenge.

It seems to us that the Nuclear Security Summit was focused on the North Korea nuclear issue and on the issue of common security from a terrorist attack. Our appeal on the need for the independent assessment at Reactor 4 was regarded as less urgent. We predicted this outcome in light of the nature of the Summit. I suppose most participants fully understood the potential disaster which will affect their countries. Nevertheless, they decided not to raise the delicate issue, perhaps in order to not ruffle their diplomatic relationship with Japan.

I was moved by Ambassador Murata’s courage in pressing this issue in Japan. I know how difficult it is for a former career diplomat to do this, especially in my country. Current and former government officials might be similarly restricted in the scope of their actions, as Ambassador Murata is, but it is their responsibility to take a stand for the benefit of our descendants for centuries to come—to pass on a world safer than our ancestors passed us.

If Japanese government leaders do not recognize the risk their nation faces, how could the rest of us be persuaded of the looming disaster? And if the rest of us do not acknowledge the catastrophe we collectively face, who will be the one to act?

Tokyo, March 25, 2012

Dear Secretary-General,

Honorable Ban Ki-moon,

I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude for your considerate letter dated 2 March, 2012. Your moral support for a United Nations Ethics Summit will remain a constant source of encouragement for my activities.

Please allow me to pay a tribute to your great contribution to strengthen nuclear safety and security. The current Nuclear Summit in Seoul is no doubt greatly benefiting from the high-level meeting you convened last September.

I was asked to make a statement at the public hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors on March 23. I raised the crucial problem. of N0.4 reactor of Fukushima containing1535 fuel rods. It could be fatally damaged by continuing aftershocks. Moreover, 50 meters away from it exists a common cooling pool for 6 reactors containing 6375 fuel rods!

It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on NO.4 reactor. This is confirmed by most reliable experts like Dr. Arnie Gundersen or Dr. Fumiaki Koide.

Please allow me to inform you of an initiative being taken by a former UN official who is endeavoring to have the Nuclear Security Summit take up the crucial problem. of N0.4 reactor of Fukushima. He is pursuing the establishment of an independent assessment team. I think his efforts are very significant, because it is indispensable to draw the attention of world leaders to this vital issue.

I am cooperating with him, writing to some of my Korean acquaintances that this issue deserves the personal attention of President Lee Myung-bak. I have written today to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. I asked him to consider taking the initiative of mobilizing human wisdom on the widest scope to cope with the Fukushima reactor No.4 problem, fully taking into account the above-mentioned “independent assessment team”.

The world has been made so fragile and vulnerable. The role of the United Nations is increasingly vital. I wish you the best of luck in your noble mission. Please accept, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the assurances of my highest consideration.

62 comments to Ambassador Murata writes to UN Secretary General: “It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No. 4 reactor” — Appeals for independent assessment team

I pushed the link to the article out-to everyone that I know. If the crowd doubted your concern over this last year, show them this article/letter. The reason any of us has been here over this last year is that we 'sensed', from day one, this was not a 'usual' event of high-tech gone awry. If people decide to turn away from the truth of Murata's appeal, then it's obvious our species deserves what's about to descend (literally) upon us all…

"..When they say "fuel rods" when they really mean "fuel assemblies." Per the pdf below from the Blue Ribbon Commission, there are 1,535 fuel assemblies in the #4 SFP. That's more than 145,000 fuel rods. Nearly 600,000 fuel rods in the 6,375 fuel assemblies in the common spent fuel pool.

I need the help of the cam viewers, them good folks that have spent weeks months watching the cranes and activities over unite 4, dose anyone think it was/has been possible that they removed debris from FP4 and moved the assemblies during the past year, any amount of or most of, there was lots of crane movement, does anyone think they may have lightened the load of 4 or moved all of it ??

Moved to where doc? If there were fires in SFP4, assume fuel assemblies melted together. Arnie Gunderson did a clip earlier on to demo the brittleness of used zirconium rod sheath, and how when exposed to air they release hydrogen. I would guess that any attempt to move rods from SFP 4 (uncluding the 204 (?) NEW MOX rods that were about to be loaded into Unit 4), would result in fatal doses to the workers who had to handle the assemblies at each end of the crane ride..

exposed to air they release hydrogen, the FP4 is open to the air, it sure is not going to build pressure in the dome of a reactor !
May have been some people that did it and died knowing, they did have the rad suites though ! If one man could hook 5 or 10 to cranes hooks, I remember the flames we saw at times when the cranes would appear to set something down !!! If they had open trucks to set in full of water, they would only be exposed to air a short time, but if they had been frozen with liquid nitrogen ?? They may be able to handle out of water for a short time !

The assemblies indeed can handle being out of cooling water for a short time. When a reactor is refueled, the spent fuel assemblies are picked up out of the reactor core with a crane and transferred to the spent fuel pool. They don't melt instantaneously, nor do they explode, nor are they an instant death sentence for those operating the crane.

The problem with unloading SFP4 is that the crane is a mass of twisted metal and the level of the water in the pool isn't sufficient to adequately shield a crane operator from radiation during the transfer process.

Good points and we don't know (the Japanese and the NRC do) how bad the fusing is of melted assemblies in the pool itself. If there is significant fusing of rods (which I suspect) then nothing short of a shaped detonation could extract the chunky mess to the ocean. Once again I think the neutron bomb option had always been on the table as a last resort… And some engineers may have it on their list as the first resort.

We know the pool went without water in March 2011 so the chances are pretty good the whole mess is melted together, when water levels drop, it is across the board in the pool so they all had to get very hot and fused into one mass, I believe this is the reality, but dose not explain why they would not have built one supper pool around the while structure and fill it with water to prevent future fires as happen in the fall that has been reported ?

Could it be they are so frozen in the moment they are not thinking out of the box !? This kind of pool would even keep run off from the sea !
New concret under the entire structure and out a ways from and build 6 foot think walls, poured from concrete !lined with a agent that if a crack(earthquake) was to form there would be no leakage !

Why do people continue to insist or suggest that fuel has been moved out of SFP #4? Even if there was no melting of the fuel due to fires in the pool this is completely impossible for so many reasons. The fuel is only moved under 30 feet of water normally because of dose rates. To move a bundle in the air would mean you would need a crane with an arm one mile long or the crane operator would die. You would have to evacuate the entire site if one fuel bundle was lifted out of the water or everyone on site would die. Look at the TMI video and see how it took years for them to move any fuel.

The only answer is to build a structure around and underneath the spent fuel pool with concrete so it does not collapse. What are they waiting for?

We've all seen those huge water slides they have at places like The Dells or countless other hotels along the interstate. I'm pretty sure they have one set up on the oceanside of the reactor and have been sliding fuel into the ocean for about a year now. What choice did they have?

I think we really need someone who is known to most of the general public to make a big fuss about the dangers of SFP4, someone like professor Steven Hawking would be a great candidate. He's also got a vested interest, what with radiation and electronics not working well together.
Blimey, cant believe that came into my head. I should really take my lithium when Im on a manic cycle.

stopnp, the charade is just about over. When someone who has been involved in the industry, of the caliber of Robert Alvarez says it could end civilization, you know the charade is over.

I wonder if he's on speaking terms with the NRC crew, and Hilary Clinton? Do you think he'll be ostracized for telling the truth?

I bet Obama, Hilary, and all the clowns will be scrambling and falling over themselves to apologize. If there isn't continuing deafening silence. Their silence will kill their careers. They MUST find some way to make it sound like they, Duh, got incorrect data or something that might sound remotely plausible, to excuse their complicity in potential global genocide.

Can you imagine what this will do to the nuclear industry, the DoE, the NRC, Obama, the EPA, FDA, and so on and so on, should this blow wide open? That's exactly what has begun to occur. When the big boys in the know realize it's game over, potential checkmate, they begin to sing like canaries, as the old saying goes.

We'll no doubt begin to hear lame stories about bad translations of reports from Japanese, missing or inaccurate data, etc., etc., ad nauseum while they all scramble to cover their lame posterior parts.

If the SFP (Spent Fuel Pool) in #4 collapses or fails to be kept cool FOR ANY REASON, in a very short time, all the fuel rods in it will destroy themselves by becoming a huge molten mass. This new radioactive mass will make the ENTIRE Fukushima complex (including reactors #5 and #6 (and their SFP's) into not only the Worlds biggest nuclear disaster but it will be so radioactive that the entire complex will be off limits to humans! This new uncontrollable molten mass will spew so much radioactivity (and keep doing so for the rest of our lives) that it will change life as we know it, because it will be spread Globally by the jet stream and or Ocean currents.

BTW: If you have not seen the 1959 movie "On the Beach" you should, it describes a very similar situation…

1. TEPCO should be filling the entire #4 building with concrete ASAP in order to create a "Seismic Vessel" to completely encapsulate the SFP making it impossible for it to collapse, because the new "Seismic Vessel" would be one gigantic unit…

2. TEPCO should have no less than 4 backup generators and 4 pumps that EACH could provide ENOUGH emergency power and water should ANYTHING happen to prevent the normal pumps from functioning. Note this includes protecting all the fuel, storage tanks, piping and controls so that it would make these pumps and their generators completely BOMB PROOF so nothing could prevent them from functioning 24/7/365 and then TEST ONE UNIT EVERY DAY UNDER ACTUAL LOAD, so that the on site workers become expert at shifting pumps!

3. TEPCO should build and then fill enough tanks to provide standby cooling freshwater for at least one week, so that no matter what happens, the #4 SFP will be kept cool without using seawater, (which could serve as another backup source of water) if the freshwater proved to not be enough for some unknown reason!

As posted on http://is.gd/1JbN54
The day before Easter 2012, I'm reminded of a warning about another historic disaster, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the still ongoing discussion about if the US Military and or US Gov't. had any advanced knowledge of the attack but decided instead to "stand down" for political reasons…

Fukushima's reactor #4 spent fuel pool (SFP) is a potentially similar "event" only this time the Japanese UN Ambassador is warning US ahead of time in no uncertain terms, and even asking for HELP to prevent it…

Please demand some answers form your State and National Leaders as to why our President and Government's Leaders are not also demanding that this Potential "LIFE AS WE KNOW IT" event is not even being discussed by our MSM!

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